Our People

Our People

 

 

 

Robyn Monro Miller AM - Chief Executive Officer

Robyn Monro Miller AM
Robyn is committed to ensuring that all children experience a sense of belonging to their community through guaranteed access to play opportunities and as active and valued contributors to their community.
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As a beneficiary of a happy, healthy childhood, Robyn has made her life’s work advocating the same for all children. Her career has spanned 35 years, encompassing senior leadership roles in education, local government, children’s services and the charity sector. With qualifications in education, children’s services, community management and training Robyn held representative leadership roles in children’s services at a state and national level for 25 years. In 2012 Robyn was part of the international delegation to the United Nations in Geneva to progress the development of the UN General Comment on Article 31 “The child’s right to play”. She was elected to the voluntary role of President of the International Play Association (IPA) in 2017 and in doing so was the first Australian to hold that position in the history of the organisation. A frequent guest speaker at conferences and seminars across Australia, as well as internationally, she is a regular writer and media spokesperson on middle childhood. Her work as an advocate for Children’s Services has been recognised with the awarding of Commonwealth Centenary medal. An alumni of the NSW Benevolent Society's "Sydney Leadership" program and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Community Practice and Governance. In 2012, Robyn was awarded The Allan Laughlin Perpetual Award for excellence in leadership from the Australian College of Educators. This was followed by the awarding of an “Outstanding Educator” award in 2014 and a fellowship from the Australian College of Educators. In 2018 she was awarded the Joan Matheson Distinguished Service Award by Play Australia and in 2022 an AM in the Australian honours list for services to children.

Peter Curry - Digital Training Developer

Peter Curry
Play is about adventure and wondering. It’s about exploring our surroundings and understanding how we fit into this incredible world. It provides me with an instant connection with my children and a life lasting bond

Peter Curry is the Digital Training Developer at Play Australia and has a passion for creating authentic learning experiences.
His combined experiences in business development and creative entertainment have provided the launching pad to our journey into online education in the realm of playspace development. He is enabling Play Australia to reach a far greater audience, in turn, strengthening the advocacy for play.

Joanne Thorne - Membership Officer

Joanne
Play for me is about connecting with others, learning and discovering new things. It's about being creative, experimenting and having fun.

Joanne is the CRM and Website Administrator at Play Australia. Joanne comes from an administration and business support background, with experience in the not-for-profit children's education and care sector.

Our Board of Management

The Board consists of interested community members who are elected at the annual general meeting to manage the legal and financial responsibilities of the organisation. The Board and staff work together to develop the policies and aims of the organisation, involving an ongoing strategic and business plan to guide the resource allocation in order to achieve the goals of the organisation.

Carly Goodrich - President

Carly Goodrich
Play is losing myself in moments, no matter how long or short they are or who I am with, and not being distracted by everything else that is going on in the busyness of life. Topped off by sharing the fun and silliness with family, friends and strangers alike!

Carly is the City of Casey’s Team Leader, Recreation Planning and is passionate about creating and transforming spaces for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy. Carly has a strategic and collaborative focus, and considers the broader outcomes for Council and the community in delivering open space.

From nine years of local government experience, and coming from the sport, health and wellbeing sectors, one of her proudest achievements as a planner is the multi-award winning Valley Reserve Playspace in Mount Waverley, definitely worth a visit! With the move to the rapidly growing City of Casey, there is an exciting opportunity to influence, innovate and simplify the ways in which we plan, design and build for play.

Carly leads an active lifestyle with her family, spending much of their time outdoors exploring (and testing) parks, beaches, nature and sporting reserves!

Don Wark - Treasurer

Don Wark
Play is nature’s most powerful learning process and the lessons it provides are among life’s most valuable.

Don established The Play Works in 1984 and as MD has been at the forefront of evolving playground and play equipment design throughout. Play Works won the 2006 National Playspace award for their breakthrough All-abilities playground at Pioneer Park and the 2015 award for the Frew Park playground that redefined the place of risk in play. He served on the Australian Playground Standards for committee for 10 years and has been a long-time friend of Play Australia.

Kerry Logan

KERRY LOGAN
Play is how children learn about themselves and their world. So I believe we all have a responsibility to support children and young people of all ages, abilities, interests and dispositions to follow their own innate drive to play.

Kerry’s interest in outdoor play began in 2002 when she joined the PlaySafe Advisory Association team, re-ignited in 2009 when she joined Kidsafe WA’s Playground Advisory Service; becoming an all-consuming passion in 2011 following her attendance at the IPA conference in Cardiff and joining Nature Play Solutions shortly after that.

She writes…

Growing up in the 1960s and 70s I spent endless hours playing outdoors – helping in the vegie garden, riding my bike around the neighbourhood, collecting tadpoles, raising frogs, climbing trees, harvesting mulberries, hours and hours of unsupervised play.  Holidays were nearly always to visit cousins in the WA Wheatbelt and full of kid-only adventures – picnics on the top of the hill in the back paddock, playing in the creek, gathering mushrooms and scary visits to the haunted old farm house near the shearing shed.

The more I have researched, the more I believed that outdoor play provision of recent decades actually inhibits quality play opportunities and therefore does little to support children’s learning, development, health & wellbeing.  I agree with a colleague who proposed that our attitudes to and understanding of ‘play’ and how we provide for it are a litmus test of our attitude to children and young people and the rights afforded them within a civil society.

I have a strong belief that public open spaces are also a site of intersection for a wide variety of issues – child and community development, community safety and wellbeing, conservation and environment, connection to place and country, habitat protection, intergenerational social connectedness, universal access and inclusion, as well as PLAY – such that design and development of these spaces require a multi-disciplinary approach to challenge our perceptions of childhood, outdoor play and playspace design and inspire a change in thinking about the Nature of Play.

Kylie Brannelly

Kylie Brannelly
Play is laughing, exploring, thinking, falling and getting back up again. In a world of rules, play gives children and adults the freedom to be themselves.

Kylie Brannelly is the Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Children’s Activities Network (QCAN) and has been involved in the Education and Care Services sector in various support, advocacy and leadership roles for more than 20 years. As a National representative for Outside School Hours Care, Kylie participated in the steering committee overseeing the development of the Learning Framework for School Age Care, My Time, Our Place. At this level, Kylie has also been able to advise government on pertinent policy and program issues for the sector, representing OSHC on both Federal and State Government Advisory forums. Kylie appreciates the opportunity to work together with other organisations in both government and non-government sectors to advance OSHC (and ultimately the opportunity for play!).

Kylie holds a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood), Master of Education (Special Education) and has an ongoing commitment to professional learning and development. She has just recently become an Adjunct Research Fellow, Griffith University - Brisbane, Australia.

David Kutcher

Don Wark


David has been the longest serving GM and Board member in The Venny’s history! David has traveled extensively to study models of Play work in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia and has completed well over 10,000 hours of play work practice. He has a proven track record of building risk competency and play sufficiency and putting children and young people front and the center of all decision making and play practice.

Kim Moroney

Kim Moroney


Kim is education officer for early learning at the catholic schools office in the Diocese of Maitland Newcastle. Kim has travelled estensively to Sweden, Finland, the UK and China to study best practice in early learning. Kim is a strong advocate for children and families.

Andrew Reedy

Jane Webb-Williams


Play Check director, Andrew Reedy, brings a wealth of experience in playground safety and design. He has been involved in the playground industry since 1994. During that time he has been involved in the design and manufacture of playground equipment, as well all aspects of safety and compliance.